Covid: New confirmed UK cases top 50,000 for second day in a row

ITV News Deputy Political Editor Anushka Asthana reports on the rush to get the country triple vaccinated

New Covid cases in the UK have topped 50,000 for the second day in a row, as research into the new Omicron variant continues.

The government said, as of 9am on Friday, there had been a further 50,584 lab-confirmed Covid cases in the UK.

Data also indicates a further 143 people have died within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Friday.

Separate figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have now been 170,000 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

Wales reported its first case of the Omicron variant on Friday, while the number of confirmed instances in Scotland rose to 29, in England at least 22 cases of the variant have been identified.

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England

The death toll in England rose by 115, taking the overall figure to 126,477 within 28 days of a positive test. Cases meanwhile increased by 43,888 over the past day.

Scotland

In Scotland, 2,432 new cases were recorded, while the death toll increased by 16 to 9,634.

Wales

There were similar figures coming out of Wales, with 2,356 new cases confirmed and eight deaths, taking the overall toll to 6,428.

Northern Ireland

The Department of Health said: “1,908 positive cases and sadly, four deaths have been reported in the past 24 hours.”